The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1887-11-25
TIE KIMBALL GRAPHIC.
BY c. r. TlNAh.

The GRAPHIC is issued n day earlier
this week, in order that our office force
associate editors, composltors, press
men, etc.,-may gorge themselves. Up
on that day WI hope to be quite busy
ourself. Turkeys have Matched out well
and are coming in lively this .ycar. and
we are stacking them up under our
desk. AT our Thanksgiving dinner we
shall pass our plate four or five times.
What we demand at a Thanksgiving din
ner, is filing. Those people who de,
sire to knaw away for an hour at the tip
of a wing can do SO. We are not con
structed that way. We have the ad.
vantage of being scooped IL very thin,
and when We sit down with a Thanks
giving dinner, a total stranger would
know. by q careless glance at the table,
that some master hand had been poster
ing with the vituals. There is no sentl-
mental modesty about us while at the
festive board. And yet we were not al
ways thus. When a child, we were so
modest and bashfui that we constantly
nursed an aching interior. We did not
seem to have the gall that should have
accompanied our capacity for dining.
Under the paternai roof we managed to
make out" but when visiting relatives
or friends of the family, we were placed
at u disadvantage. Those who did not
know no & ! tho tehlo eoo~oJ 20 ,,.I,o :.
fatal mistake in not sizing us up as an
expert eatest, and, owing to our mod
esty, we suffered in silence, and allowed
the canker worm Of hunger to knaw at
our vitals. While on the subject we
might as well tell a harro wing tale of
our younger days-but don't give it
away. 1t was in the East, on the shore
of the beautiful and ~treacherous Lake
Erie, a few miles east of Cleveland, and
happened-let's sec-about twenty sum
mers ago. The occasion was a Sunday
school picnic. We were one of tho prize
scholars and had grown hump-shoul-
dered learning verses and Juggling about
reward of merit cards kindly bought
and paid for by Jul Sunday school teach
er, John s.. Lockwood-as good a man
as ever lived, God bless his soul. Well,
we had ran up and down the shores Of
the lake, skinned stones out on the
blue waters, crawled up behind trees to
watch the girls go in bathing and tore
around generally until we were as hungry
as a young bear. AT last after what
seemed about four ages, the good little
boys and girls were called to dinner.
Several ankles were spraincd in the rush
tor a seat near where the central table
was piled with frosted cake, custard pic,
fried cakes and everything. We were
cmanciated by committing chapters, be-
ing good-and hungry-so we coul MT
run worth a cent, and in consequence
secured a seat with the northwest corner
of the fartherest table spearing us in the
bosom. Soon all were eating, and hap
Ply as little apes-tlrat is, all but the
writer. 1t so happened that all the
plates passed up on both sides of the
table gave oat just as they came to us.
We sat there and watched the Others
eat, and a lump formed itself IN our
throat as large as a hens egg. We had
our hands full trying to keep back the
tears. We wish now we had u photo
graph of that boy as he sat there, tne
most miserable creature on earth in the
midst of that merry crowd of Episco-
palians. We did not have the courage
to inform any Of the good ladies', who
were h%urrying back and forth, of their
neglect, but we did have the pluck 10
conceal u modification. We seized a
fork and began playing it back and
forth from the empty plate to our wat
ering mouth. We arose from the table
without eating a mouthful. We played
with the boys and girls are shouted as
loud as any of them. and not a soul to
this day eve knew of the awful hun ,er
and terrible disappointment of that pic
mic. This Is the reason we eat with such
abandon during our late years. But,
gormandize and gorge as much as VIC
may, unless VIC live to AL extreme old
age-which isn't likely, as we are an edi-
tor--and married-we never will be able
to square accounts with our stomach for
the vital injustice done it at the picnic
on the shores OF Lake Erie.
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